Bar-A-BBQ pop-up gets the details right
To the surprise of many aspiring pitmasters, the success of a barbecue business often depends on mundane logistical and marketing details unrelated to the actual process of smoking of meats.
Will the business start out as a pop-up restaurant or a food trailer? What days will it be open? Should it be in an urban area where there is a bigger market but more competition, or in a more rural area that is lacking in high-quality barbecue?
Bar-A-BBQ, a pop-up in Montgomery, is a rare example of a growing barbecue business that gets the details right.
Started three years ago by Cooper Abercrombie and his wife, Shelby, Bar-A-BBQ is producing excellent Central Texasstyle barbecue while strategically building a customer base that will become the foundation for a future brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Abercrombie, 28, caught the barbecue bug after finishing school at Texas A&M University–Commerce. Like many young pitmasters, he went down the rabbit hole of barbecue videos on YouTube, including Aaron Franklin’s PBS video series, as well as the Meat Church BBQ series.
“When I start something, I spend every waking hour of the day learning how to do it,” says Abercrombie, who started with a small backyard pit and graduated to his current offset barrel smoker built by Backline Smokers.
Abercrombie grew up in Montgomery but moved to Cypress for high school, following his dad who is a football coach. After college he cooked for family and friends in Cypress, but when it was time to make the jump to commercial barbecue, he and Shelby chose to move back to Montgomery, a fast-growing exurb of Houston that is primed for a craft barbecue joint.
After establishing their location, the next decision was scheduling. Cooper is a regional sales manager for a fencing company and Shelby is the head coach for the girl’s basketball team at Willis High School. Also, they recently started a family, so adding a barbecue business to the mix had the potential to overwhelm them, time-wise.
So they made the decision to open only two days per month, on every 1st and 3rd Saturday. This allows them to concentrate on producing high-quality, small-batch barbecue without the pressure of being open for multiple days every week.
Further to that plan, they use social media to clearly and consistently communicate opening times and locations. This is often the Achilles heel of an aspiring pitmaster who often believes, “If you cook it, they will come.”
On the contrary, communicating time and location of a popup is probably the most important factor in its success, and the Abercrombies get this right.
Similarly, they have chosen to offer a focused menu of barbecue basics. On a recent Saturday they sold four meats, two sides and a homemade buttermilk biscuit. Many new pitmasters feel the need to overcompensate for their inexperience by offering a large menu of average barbecue. The secret to longterm success is the opposite: start with a limited number of menu items and make them great.
Technical execution of the prime brisket, pork ribs, turkey and handmade sausage was excellent at Bar-A-BBQ. Shelby’s cheesy potatoes and pillowy biscuits perfectly complemented the smoked meats.
There are no overnight successes in Texas barbecue. Bar-ABBQ has been at it for over three years and is just now becoming known to barbecue fans in the greater Houston area. They are an example of how patience and attention to detail are two of the most important factors in the success of a barbecue business.